Race After Hitler - Black Occupation Children In Postwar Germany And America

Zusatztext "Heide Fehrenbach's Race after Hitler is a major contribution to both the history of Germany and the United States in the decade and a half after 1945. . . . Race after Hitler is a very stimulating book. Whether the subjects addressed would be new to American scholars, I cannot say. Fehrenbach scoured the archives, journals, and newspapers in the United States and Germany to produce a beautifully written book that raises many questions about the continuation of racial thinking among Germans and Americans in the decade and a half after 1945. Like any important book, it should motivate younger scholars to move into the budding field of African American, Afro-German, and German history." ---Kenneth Barkin, Journal of African American History "At once sophisticated in concept and fully accessible, "Race after Hitler" is written with the mature fluency and authoritativeness of a seasoned historian and storyteller. The book is full of rich and evocative evidence and persuasive arguments that will give students and specialists alike much to debate and ponder."--Dagmar Herzog, Graduate Center, City University of New York ""Race after Hitler" will have a significant impact that extends well beyond the community of those who study modern German history. It offers extremely interesting insights into how to think about the categories in which racial difference is articulated and expressed, and provides an exceptionally rich model of how to write a complex historical account. It is a major accomplishment that will change the way we think about German attitudes toward race in the aftermath of the Third Reich."--Robert Moeller, University of California-Irvine "An exemplary model of the new transnational history with a strongly sociocultural bent, Heide Fehrenbach's pathbreaking book will be of great interest to historians of the United States and Germany alike."--V. R. Berghahn, Columbia University "Heide Fehrenbach has written a fascinating and compelling tale of the children born after 1945 of unmarried German mothers and African American GI fathers. This brilliant example of the new international history will attract a wide readership on both sides of the Atlantic."--Thomas Borstelmann, coauthor of "Created Equal" "Clearly written, forcefully argued, very well researched and documented, and highly original, "Race after Hitler" is a major contribution to our understanding of the transformation of postwar German society andits complex relationship with the United States. This book will also be of great interest to students of gender, race, and ethnicity. A truly splendid accomplishment."--Omer Bartov, Brown University Zusammenfassung When American victors entered Germany in the spring of 1945, they came armed not only with a commitment to democracy but also to Jim Crow practices. Race after Hitler tells the story of how troubled race relations among American occupation soldiers, and black-white mixing within Germany, unexpectedly shaped German notions of race after 1945. Biracial occupation children became objects of intense scrutiny and politicking by postwar Germans into the 1960s, resulting in a shift away from official antisemitism to a focus on color and blackness. Beginning with black GIs' unexpected feelings of liberation in postfascist Germany, Fehrenbach investigates reactions to their relations with white German women and to the few thousand babies born of these unions. Drawing on social welfare and other official reports, scientific studies, and media portrayals from both sides of the Atlantic, Fehrenbach reconstructs social policy debates regarding black occupation children, such as whether they should be integrated into German society or adopted to African American or other families abroad. Ultimately, a consciously liberal discourse of race emerged in response to the children among Germans who prided themselves on--and were laud...

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Heide Fehrenbach
• Editore: Princeton University Press
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Copertina rigida
• Pubblicazione: 18.07.2005
• EAN: 9780691119069
• ISBN: 978-0-691-11906-9
• Pagine: 263
• Dimensioni: 152 mm x 241 mm x 19 mm
• Categoria: Scienze umane, arte, musica > Storia